Open Access research with a European policy impact...

The Strathprints institutional repository is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde's Open Access research outputs. Strathprints provides access to thousands of Open Access research papers by Strathclyde researchers, including by researchers from the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC).

EPRC is a leading institute in Europe for comparative research on public policy, with a particular focus on regional development policies. Spanning 30 European countries, EPRC research programmes have a strong emphasis on applied research and knowledge exchange, including the provision of policy advice to EU institutions and national and sub-national government authorities throughout Europe.

Abstract

Context. Waist circumference may offer improved diagnosis of obesity in youth compared with body mass index (BMI), but empirical evidence is limited. Objective. To compare the ability of BMI percentile using UK reference data and waist circumference percentile using UK reference data to diagnose high fat mass in English children. Design and Methods. In 7 722 9–10-year-olds (3 809 boys, 3 913 girls) sensitivity and specificity were calculated and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses undertaken to determine the diagnostic accuracy of BMI and waist circumference z-scores to define high fat mass measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). High fat mass was defined as being in the top decile of fatness for each sex (359 boys and 367 girls). Results. The area under the ROC curve was slightly higher for BMI percentile (0.92 in boys, 95% CI: 0.91 –0.93; 0.94 in girls, 95% CI: 0.93–0.95) than waist circumference percentile (0.89 in boys, 95% CI: 0.86–0.91; 0.81 in girls, 95% CI: 0.73–0.90). Specificity of BMI percentile was slightly but significantly higher than that of waist circumference percentile for both sexes (p<0.05 in each case). Conclusions. The present study suggests that waist circumference percentile has no advantage over BMI percentile for the diagnosis of high fat mass in children.